“Poline Road” - a song about a final journey with friends
The desert outside of Joshua Tree National Park… what a weird place.
Photo cred for the thumbnail of this musing goes to Shelby Muter. It was taken at the place we stayed and where this song was written. You can see and purchase a print of the actual road that inspired this song here!.
Backstory
December 2020 I traded a traditional Christmas for a hiking trip away from people, where better than the bottom of the Grand Canyon? I went out there with a small group of some of the most important people in my life. We spent 5 nights, 6 days hiking through the canyon on the backcountry trails. It was amazing.
All during the time, I was thinking how daunting of a place it would be if you were alone. The seed was planted in the back of my mind for a song, the idea of taking a final trip somewhere.
After we got out, I met with Shelby in Sedona and we then started out towards Joshua Tree, where we planned to ring in the new year away from basically everyone. It was my first time in a desert, and that feeling of isolation is powerful. You drive down dirt roads for miles, passing abandoned shacks and the occasional occupied home. It’s a place you would come to get away from just about anything and everything.
The house we stayed at was 3 miles down a dirt road. Because of the uneven ground, you had to drive barley over an idle, that short 3 miles took about 20 minutes to drive. As we went back and forth from Joshua Tree National Park and the house, we ended up logging some serious time on that road. The one that took the bulk of the drive was a road called Pole Line road. Second seed planted.
In the house we stayed at, there was a book on all the animal life in the desert. The number of critters out there would probably surprise most, it certainly did me. Most of them have developed a set of skills or physical traits to allow them to thrive in a landscape you wouldn’t think possible. 3rd seed planted.
The pieces came together quickly after that. I pictured a man taking a final walk down one of these long desert roads, possibly going to die, to hide forever, or to see what the unknown holds for him. Thinking he is alone, animals start to surface, ones that have been monitoring him either from near or far. They watch and let the man know that he is getting close, to what, simply to the time to go.
Writing Process
This was written on New Years Day on a gray couch inside the one room desert house we rented. I remember my feet being on the concrete floor and my notebook was propped on a hunk of wood made into a table.
I wanted to use a place that we had seen in the desert, as a place holder and a nod to an inspiring place. What better than the road that we spent so much time on. “Pole Line” didn’t roll off the tongue very well with the double “L” sound in between the two, so I combined them into one. So technically Poline is a made up road.
Because it was New Years Day, I couldn’t get the song named after by Joe Purdy. I was thinking I don’t typically write songs that sit low in my register the way he does, so thought I would mess around with that a bit. The key of F is about as low as I like to sing down there, so I started with that shape and tried to find a progression that gave the feel of sorrow, that I could sing over without too much flash, letting the story and imagery carry the song.
The rest came pretty quickly. It was fun to be playing around on this song while looking out the window in front of me. Desert as far as the eye could see. A seemingly harsh landscape, with the same texture no matter which direction you look. I just pictured myself walking down that road and how I would interact with each animal I was singing about.
The last animal (the jackal), I really wanted to be coyote, but it just didn’t fit the cadence of the song. As I was searching a bit more, the jackal, though not native to the area, held the proper characteristics. It’s the animal that most represents the breath of death warming the back of your neck. Jackals typically travel in pairs, so that also seemed fitting. It belongs with the man stepping down that road, and is waiting till it can scavenge.
Those are the main points. I am not sure if this is a song that I will play live much, but honestly it’s one of my favorite songs I have ever written simply because of how much memory it holds for me.
Notebook Page.
Jan. 1st, 2021
Lyrics
In the morning I'll head down to Poline Road
The last place I'll ever go
Feel the darkness start to grow
I'm taking my last stroll
Down Poline Road
Poline Road
On my shoulder there's a crow and its singing
I used to watch you from the sky
As I got closer everything got a little colder
Now I can see the reason why, you have to go
Down Poline Road
Poline Road
There's a snake in my boot, wrapped tight round my toes
Loves to count the wasted miles, I suppose
Says I can feel it now, we are getting pretty close
Almost your time to go
Down Poline Road
Poline Road
There’s a jackal at my back, snorting in the dust
Says he will wait till its just the two of us
How he got my trail, I'll never know
Just waiting, till I go
Down Poline Road
Poline Road